Our Adventure: More Stories from El Salvador- June 19th

There are still so many stories I want to share from El Salvador. I haven't shared anything about the middle of our trip yet, so I'll just jump into the evening of June 19th.

Eliana wasn't much of a fan of traveling this way, but it worked for short periods of time. The main problem was that it is so humid that Kyle and Eliana would overheat each other.

It is quite common to have traffic circles. We used this traffic circle as our spot to air up the giant inflatable and to show a Christian movie.

The inflatable naturally draws children, and parents came out to see the spectacle.

You may be wondering how so many children know about the inflatable. Well, there are a couple of answers for that question. When we initially get to a new site, the North Americans teamed up with translators from the church and headed into the neighborhood in small groups. We knocked on doors and told kids about the inflatable and about the movie we'd be showing. It was important to let them know that it was free!!! We also shared a tract the started with La Gran Pregunta, also know as The Big Question. We asked people if they were to die, if they knew they'd go to heaven. Their answers lead the rest of our conversation. The hope was to share with them that we can't do enough good things to go into heaven, because we aren't perfect. God is perfect, and He sent His Son Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin by dying on the cross. If we want a relationship with God, then we can ask Him to forgive us of our sins and be Lord of our life. We can do this because Jesus died, but he rose again three days later.

Word quickly spreads from one kid to another about the inflatable. Plus, we played music from the traffic circle and that helped to draw people.

When we initially went to this location on the 18th, it began to rain. We weren't able to set up the inflatable or show the movie. However, we were able to go knock on a lot of doors. Several of these boys followed my group. I, being a former teacher, found it so much easier to talk to kids. I was able to talk quite a bit to the boy on the far right in the red shirt. He said that he already went to the church that we were encouraging people to go to. I asked him what his favorite Bible story was. He said the creation story. When I asked him what his favorite day of creation was, he didn't know. A translator read Genesis 1 to him. He decided that the fourth day when God made the moon was his favorite! I was glad to see him and his buddies on the 19th!

This little girl was adorable. You can't really tell from the picture, but she has beautiful brown ringlets. Maybe one day Eliana will have hair like her. The little one and her mom had the opportunitity to watch the movie. After the movie, a black and white drama was performed that depicted creation, man's choice to sin, and redemption through Jesus's death and resurrection.

While the movie was playing, we got some pupusas. It is a staple food for many El Salvadorians. It is made from a corn or rice mixture of dough. Cheese, beans, and/or meat is stuffed into the middle of the dough. Then the dough is patted flat like a pancake and cooked on a griddle. The ladies at pupusarias often flip the pupusas with their bare hands. The are steaming hot!!! Kyle had been talking about pupusas since he came in Januaray. I'm glad that we were able to try them.